“No more questions. Go back to Emrallie’s hut. Sleep, if you like to sleep in the night. Might be your last.”

“I’ve slept enough. Caroni? Can I call you Caroni?”

“Yes. Go and rest now.”

“How can we rest? You may put us out when day comes.”

“Daylight can kill you any day,” Caroni said.

Back in Emrallie’s hut, Sorrel lay staring at the roof. She heard the rush of the river and the turmoil of the forest and it was like music. Emrallie was not in the hut, but the bedding had been shaken out and there was a full algaskin left for each of them.

Bibi sat, leaning against the hut walls. A faint glow from the candles and torches the Tribals held filtered through the gap between the walls and roof of the hut. Sorrel liked it better than the harshness of the streetlights in Bana. A waft of warm, wet air drifted through the door and feathered her skin. Her stomach was full of good food. She had slept for almost eight hours in the day. She turned to Bibi.

“What d’you think? Should we just leave now and take our chances?”

“I don’t think so, One. This is a good place. It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“But they could take us to the Burning Rock Plain when daylight comes.”

“I doubt they will. That head woman – Caroni – wanted my info-clearance. We should rest now.” Bibi avoided her daughter’s eyes. “Lie down.”

“I’ve slept enough. You rest.”

Sorrel stared into the dark, thinking about a possible escape. Probably the PlAK was still attached to its charger outside Caroni’s hut and she could retrieve it. They had their backpacks. They could fill as many algaskins as they could carry from the river. Maybe she could find her way to the river in the dark, but then what? Perhaps they could follow it until it disappeared into the earth, but could they find their way back to the culvert, back to the cable car columns and even then, what about the landslides at the top and the feral pack Caroni had described or the band of Lowlander males who used the cable car? The brutal Toplanders? Her mother’s tiredness?

She looked over at Bibi who was turned away. Her body did not have the relaxed look of sleep and her breathing was quiet. Sorrel got up and walked out into the forest, touching the trees as she went, making sure she could still see the camp. She knew what her mother would say – We need a plan.